Bargain Audio Equipment

[sonnymax]

13 minutes ago, mr jazz said:

I've got an oppo 103 that I have been told needs to go to a good home i.e. someone elses. Haven't posted it anywhere yet. send me a PM if interested. I'll probably get it up this week in a few places but really don't want to mess with fleabay.

This isn't the forum to offer things for sale. Please delete and repost elsewhere.

[JSngry]

On ‎11‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 8:45 AM, GA Russell said:

Let's start a thread for when something good goes on sale.

"On sale" and "for sale" are not the same thing, but I'm not going to pick nits.

However, a post in the "Offering and Looking For" forum might get more attention, and therefore a happier ending.

[Scott Dolan]

This thread gets more confusing as it goes along. 

GA isn’t trying to make money here. 

[GA Russell]

Thanks, Scott!

I agree that a 7% discount is usually unremarkable.  However, The Camels say that this is the item's lowest price since Sept. 8, 2014!

Chuck, if you say the item is overpriced, I believe you 100%  But tell us of a comparable item sold for less, and a superior item sold at that price.  We trust your judgment, and that's what the thread is for!

sonnymax, it's Christmastime!  'Tis the season to be jolly!

Edited December 4, 2018 by GA Russell

[Kevin Bresnahan]

18 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

This thread gets more confusing as it goes along. 

GA isn’t trying to make money here. 

sonnymax is referring to the Amazon links with referrals in them. GA might not be making any money here but someone may be... many of the Amazon links have ?tag= in them. This is a referral link that gets the referrer something from Amazon. It may not be GA - I actually doubt it is, because not all of the links have ?tag=, but someone is.

[JSngry]

and now we have talking camels?

[Scott Dolan]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

sonnymax is referring to the Amazon links with referrals in them. GA might not be making any money here but someone may be... many of the Amazon links have ?tag= in them. This is a referral link that gets the referrer something from Amazon. It may not be GA - I actually doubt it is, because not all of the links have ?tag=, but someone is.

Gotcha. 

I’m deep into the world of CBD, a market that is somewhat overrun with affiliates and MLM’s. So I usually have a good sniffer for those kinds of things. 

I’m just completely unfamiliar with what to look for on Amazon. So if it has ?tag=., that’s an affiliate link? 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Scott Dolan

[Kevin Bresnahan]

39 minutes ago, JSngry said:

and now we have talking camels?

Camel drop ( https://camelcamelcamel.com/ ) is a website that keeps you up to date on the latest Amazon deals and no, they don't do this for free.

FWIW, I get an "Ereader News Today" E-mail on a daily basis. It shows me the latest discounted E-books for my Kindle. I buy quite a few books using this E-mail so I have no problem with the person or company who creates this E-mail from getting a little something for their work. Likewise, if GA is getting a little kickback from us clicking on these links, I have no problem with it. If Camel drop is, I'd be a little less happy with it.

[JSngry]

que significa "drop"?

[Scott Dolan]

Um, yeah. I like GA as much as anyone else. But a little transparency would be in order, don’t you think? 

If he’s making even an insignificant amount of coin, I’d have no issue with it, but a little heads up would be the right way to go about this. 

[JSngry]

CBD?

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

34 minutes ago, JSngry said:

que significa "drop"?

Some of the links in this thread have "?tag=camelhometopdrops", which would indicate that GA got the link from a camel affiliated website or e-mail. The "drop" refers to a price drop alert from a special weblink or e-mail.

Before we go all "Oh, this sucks, GA," I think we should take it easy. Even if these were done purposefully, no one is making us click these links, so you, the actual clicker, is the only one at fault here. Click at your own peril.

Lesson to be learned - always "hover" over the link and see what the link says.

FWIW, I have inserted many links over the years that *may* have been referral links. Oops. It happens. I don't often make sure that the link is clean.

FWIW II - for those who may not be computer savvy, it is not always easy to remove these referral references and still have a working link. Sometimes, you have to do a fresh search on Amazon so get a clean link. Not always something you want to do when you're just trying to let your forum buddies know of a good deal.

So the next time you get a deal alert E-mail or follow an E-mail link to a deal website, know that when you copy that link, it'll likely have a referral ID in it.

[JSngry]

No, I have no problem with it either. I do like learning new "jargon", though, so thanks for the explanation. I do like doing "forensics" on URLs, so it's good to have a greater awareness about things like this.

Next up, CBD. not familiar with that one either.

It's a day for education!

[Scott Dolan]

25 minutes ago, JSngry said:

CBD?

 

Cannabidiol, the other main cannabinoid found in Cannabis (THC being the other). 

CBD is the more medicinal, non psychoactive cannabinoid. I have been using it for almost a year now to treat anxiety (which I never realized I had!). Right now CBD oil is one of the hottest medicinal products in the world. Used to treat a whole host of medical conditions without getting high. 

Still federally illegal (as recently ruled on by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in April in the Hemp Industries Association v DEA case), and illegal in many states. 

But, it’s in a very complex legal grey area, and easily purchased online, and in many stores, even in technically illegal states. 

I could fill an entire page, but I’ll leave it at that. If you want more info, just ask. 

[JSngry]

Thanks for that info. It's all new to me, but like I said, a day for education.

The 9th has been in the news lately, on other matters. Interesting to hear of their involvement in this issue as well. Again, something learned.

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, the DEA clarified last year that Cannabidiol is indeed a Schedule 1 controlled substance according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 after warning the industry and giving them a chance to offer evidence that it should be reclassified, or even removed from scheduling. The industry and their representatives obviously didn’t take them serious, citing hemp legalization in the 2014 farm bill. 

Flash forward a few months, the DEA makes the clarification official, and the industry shit their pants and teams up with the cannabis law firm, Hoban Law Group, and filed a challenge in California. 

It’s legal in the 10 legal adult use states, legal only with a medical card in 21 other states, completely outlawed in 4, and rest have no state law so they revert to federal law. 

It ain’t Jazz, but the current cannabis battleground in the U.S. is a hell of a lot of fun to be a part of these days! 

[JSngry]

I'd think that the industry would have wanted to be out in front of the DEA, especially when Sessions was AG.

[Scott Dolan]

That’s exactly what we all thought. It was a terrible exercise in laziness on their part, due mainly to how many conflicting opinions existed as to whether or not the 2014 farm bill made CBD derived from hemp legal already. 

Problem is, three years later it is still a Schedule 1 substance, and nobody in the industry seemed to notice or care. They notice and care a whole hell of a lot now since the ruling.

Of course, to be fair to the association, both federal and state law enforcement have been so apathetic to enforce the laws (outside of a few store raids in a few states) they probably thought it was all but a done deal since they already sell and ship nationwide. 

Laziness, nonetheless. 

[JSngry]

There's a stoner joke in there somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it.

Seriously, it would be nice if we could get everybody objective and scientific about the various medicinal applications of the herb in question. I've seen nothing to suggest that it's not anything but 100% legit.

[Scott Dolan]

Neither have I. And hell, I was never a stoner, nor even that big of a fan of marijuana back when I smoked it as a teenager. And of course, Cannibidiol wasn't even a thing back then. But now I'm a staunch advocate for both marijuana and hemp for medical use. Which can be tricky considering where I work. 

Even my home state passed medical marijuana last month, and our disgraced Governor signed a bill legalizing hemp on his way out a few months ago. Most experts have Missouri going full adult use in 2022. So federal can't be too far behind. And all of this is incredibly important because making it federally legal will open up the door for studying it for medicinal properties and applications galore. Because right now federal funding to study it is all but nonexistent, which is why its medicinal value is so relatively unknown.  

At least it was a promising sign when the FDA approved Epidiolex for the U.S. market to treat epilepsy, forcing the DEA to reschedule to Schedule 5. In expected underhanded fashion, they left all other CBD a Schedule 1, but baby steps, I guess. 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Scott Dolan

[JSngry]

Science is our friend. Just sayin'...

[Scott Dolan]

Should start another thread and move all of these posts there. GA is gonna shit when he logs back in later...

[JSngry]

Shitting is a crucially fundamental part of the macro ecosystem. I will do nothing to discourage it, unless it gets on me. Then, hey...

[GA Russell]

Guys, here's what I know.

A poster who provides a link to another site, and gets a small piece of the sales price, is called an "affiliate."  I have never been an affiliate for anyone, and I don't know why anyone thinks I might be.  

Amazon's price does not increase because an affiliate's link is used.

I subscribe to daily emails from a number of Amazon affiliates.  I am happy to use their links because they have told me something I would not have known - that something I might be interested in is on sale.

For this thread, I have used two affiliates - camelcamelcamel.com and wirecutter.com.

Amazon's SKU is that combination of letters and numbers which immediately follows ""dp/".  The SKU is followed by a question mark or an equals sign.

This morning, The Camels sent me an email telling me that the Marantz CD player in question is now going for $349.45, which is the item's lowest price ever, $49.55 less than usual.  They provided me with this link:
https://www.amazon.com/Marantz-CD5005-CD-Player/dp/B00L1HMZ40?SubscriptionId=AKIAJ7T5BOVUVRD2EFYQ&tag=camel3palerts-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00L1HMZ40

When I posted above, I eliminated the question mark and everything following it:
https://www.amazon.com/Marantz-CD5005-CD-Player/dp/B00L1HMZ40

And lo and behold!  It is now going for $347.60.

One final point about the links I post.  It's easy to separate the chaff from an Amazon URL.  But often the links to a news item are long, and I will have no idea what to eliminate.

Everyone is welcome to contribute to this thread when he sees a bargain!

[Scott Dolan]

Yes, but what is your stance on the current legal status of CBD?